PLEASANTVILLE, N.Y. In order to be acquainted with her new students before the school year started, Pleasantville High School Principal sent an invitation earlier this summer to all students in the class of 2012. The invite called for a pizza party meet-and-greet with the new principal, yet Bartz was not anticipating the turnout she had on that evening.
"I didn't think a lot of students would come out during vacation but we had about 35 seniors come out and we talked for a couple of hours," Bartz said. "There was so much energy and we spoke about what things work well in the school and also some ideas for the new school year,"
Seven of the students that came to meet and discuss ideas with Principal Bartz that evening were Jamie Figler, Christian Sarro, Michael Alter, Samantha Costanza, and Marisa Portanova, along with student government President Jake Doddy and Vice President Caitlin Baffuto. All are members of the Class of 2012.
"It was a great chance to make a change with things and voice our opinion so it's not just the same thing every year in the school," said Sarro.
Doddy and Baffuto said that one of their goals for the upcoming school year is to make the student government association more open to the rest of the school, as opposed to years past when meetings only involved a certain group of students
"We want to get more students involved with student government," Baffuto said. "It used to be too small of a representation and we want to get more ideas,"
Some of the plans that the students and Principal Bartz hope to implement in Pleasantville during the upcoming school year are more pep rallys and school spirit events, dances, and an internship program for seniors.
Although the Class of 2012 is taking initiative to make changes, they and Principal Bartz understand the importance of creating a legacy within the school for years to come.
"Hopefully everything we establish, we can show the younger students that it's successful and hopefully it will carry on year after year," Doddy said.
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